Boxcar lining



Oct. 17, 1950' K. A. BROWNE BOXCAR LINING Filed Oct. 11, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

FIG-1 i6 i3 m M 20 S 15 A32. 0 36 as g 4 4a so KE NETH A. BRowNE Patented Oct. 17, 1950 BOXCAR LINING Kenneth A. Browne, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company,

a corporation of Virginia Application October 11, 1947, Serial No. 779,346

This invention relates to a lining or wall 'construction particularly adapted for" the interior of railroad. box cars where it is desired to provide a Wooden lining completely to cover a desired area, and which may easily be restored if parts become broken or otherwise damaged.

The insides of box cars normally are covered with wooden linings to keep bulk freight from contact with the exterior walls, particularly if these walls are steel, and the car sides are used to provide surfaces to which members may. be nailed to secure freight within the car. The wooden linings provided on the sides of the cars become damaged through use and periodic replacement or repair is required. At, presentbox car linings ordinarily consist of large sheets of plywood each covering an extended area, or of individual tongued and grooved boards which are nailed in place to vertical wooden stringers or posts. In either case the linings are rather expensive and replacement or repair of them is difficult. Car linings have been proposed in which tongued and grooved boards are dropped into place from the top of the car, the boards being held inside vertically extending spaced channel members the ends of the boards seating between opposing flanges. However, constructions of this type do not provide the inside of the car with a complete wooden lining, butrather with a wooden lining that is interrupted by the exposed vertical steel flanges of the channels or other structural members which hold the boards in position. These exposed metal surfaces are of marked disadvantage, particularly. when the load consists of grain or other bulk freight which may spoil where contact is made with the steel; also the steel members may rust where they come in contact with moisture bearing bulk freight. Another disadvantage with removable linings of the type heretofore known resides in the fact that the steel members into which the lining boards fit frequentlymust be of special construe-'- tion that is difficult to fabricate.

A general object of the present invention is to provide a freight car lining of improved construction in which the difficulties encountered with prior devices are substantially eliminated. Another object is the provision of a wooden car lining in which the wooden members are held in place by standard or easily rolled structural steel members, and in which individualwood'en' members may readily be replaced as required. Another object of the invention is to provide a removable lining for box cars'and the like which presents a substantially continuous wooden sur- 2 Claims; (Cl. 105-423) 2 face throughout, without exposed metal structural members. A further object of the invention is to provide a freight car lining construction that may be made up of short, random width tongued and grooved boards, whereby inexpensive lumber may be used in making the lining. Other objects of the invention will become apparent fromthe following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The novel features of the invention are-summarized in the claims.

In the drawings: Figur longitudinal section through a box car ing my improved lining; an enlarged scale, as indicated by the line 2-2 on Figure 1 of a preferred form of construction; Figure 3 is a section, on an enlarged scale, as indicated by the line 33 on Figure 1; Figure 4 is a section in a plane parallel to Figure3 show ing the construction employed at a door'post; Figure 5 is a section as indicated by line 5-5 in Figure 1 illustrating the post construction at a corner of the car; and Figure 6 is a section similar to Figure 2 but illustrating a modified form of side post construction: note being taken that Figures 4, 5 and 6 are on a somewhat smaller scale than Figures 2 and 3. i

l is a partial vertical embody- The invention is particularly adapted for use in covering. the sides of standard box cars but may also be used to cover the ends-and in other circumstances and surroundings where its construction is of advantage. In Figure 1 the invention is shown as embodied in a box car of conventional type except as to the lining that forms the subject matter of the present invention. The car is provided with flooring l0 comprising a series of boards extending crosswise of and secured to the frame in the usualmanner. .Horizcntally corrugated end walls indicated at I2 are secured to side walls l3 (Figure 5) and are surmounted by a' top indicated generally at M, all

cooperating to provide a standard enclosedbox car, the sides of which are lined in accordance with the present invention. Since the structural features of such a car are well-known and form no part of the present invention they are not further described herein.

To support the lining and at the same time r'einforce and form a part of the car side walls, a preferred form of the present invention embodies a plurality of posts in the form of equally spaced H-beams I5 secured between spaced ends of plates forming the car sides (Figure 2), which posts extend vertically from the floor almost to the roof, leaving space at the. top for insertion Figure 2 is a section, on

support the lining in the corners and at the doors of the car respectively. All of the side, corner and door posts act both as structural members of the car, and as supports for the wooden boards that make up the car lining.

Except for the region taken up by the doors of the car both of the sides are entirely lined with boards as indicated generally at 30 in Figure 1. These boards are of random width (FFgure 3) and are tongued and grooved along their horizontal edges as indicated at 32; they are relatively short each being about three feet long to correspond to the desired spacin between the modified beams 55 and at certain places, between beams l5 and the corner and end posts respectively. Because the width of the boards is not crit cal, and beca se of their short length, they can be made of inexpensive scrap lumber.

The opposite ends of each board are milled somewhat difierently but, except for their random widths, the boards are each identical one to the other permitting ready interchange of boards from one position to another in the car or replacement of any one board in the car by any new board. The form of the milled ends of the boards is best shown in Figure 2 where boards 39a and 3017 are shown with their adjacent ends interfitted with each other and with the inner flange of the H-beam l5. The right hand end of the board 39b and the left-hand end of the board 30a are identical with the right and left ends of the boards 30a and 302), respectively, as shown.

The right-hand end of the board 3% is milled as shown so that a part, indicated at 35, lies back away from the flange to provide clearance and merges with a recessed portion 36 corresponding as closely as practical to the shape of the adjacent end of the flange 22. of the end that is adjacent the surface exposed on the inside of the car extends toward and beyond the flange l5 and is shaped as indicated at 3l to form a shiplap joint with the end of board 3%. The left-hand end of the board 391) is milled to provide a portion 4% which, like the portion 35, lies back away from the channel 15, and to provide arecessed portion 42 corresponding to the portion 36 in the end of the board 36a to fit over the corresponding end of the flange 22. A part of a shiplap joint complementary to the part 3'! of board 38a is formed as indicated at 44 and includes a tongue lying within the outer portion 37 of the board a.

From the above description it will be evident that no part of the H-beam the inside of the car but it is completely covered by the boards 39a and 36b and particularly by the shiplap joint formed by the portions 37 and 44 of the respective boards. The interfitting of the boards with each other and with the flange 22 not only insures a continuous wooden surface on the inside of the car but permits the boards on oneside of a channel l5 to reinforce the boards on the other side.

The boards making up the lining are positioned between the several H-beam flanges at The part I5 is exposed to the top of the car in the region generally indicated at 45 and are then dropped downwardly to make a series of vertical stacks between H- beams. the boards interengage with the H -beams and with boards of adjacent stacks; the tongues and grooves of adjacent boards in each stack also are engaged, providing a smooth lining without any large gaps or cracks between the boards.

It will be evident that if a board near the bottom of a stack, such as the board 380 in Figure 1, becomes broken or damaged, it may be removed and all of the boards above it in the stack allowed to drop down until its place is filled. A new board is then added at the top of the stack to provide a continuous section of lining of approximately the same original height. Since the boards are of the same length and the beams l5 equally spaced any board may be used to replace a board in any stack.

At the door posts of the car the shaped recessed portions 36 or 42 of the lining boards 39 receive and are supported by sides 45 of standard box car door post channels 4'. as shown in Figure 4. In order to eliminate sharp outstanding edges of the boards at these posts they preferably are milled quarter round as shown at 48 with a hand tool after they have been dropped in place. The side 49 opposite side 45 of each channel 47 is secured in abutting position with the adjacent edge 50 of side wall l3 and is welded to it at 55 to provide a smooth exterior car surface similar to the surface formed where the H-beams 15 are welded in place as previously described.

The lining covering the side walls and the vertical tongue-d and grooved lining over the end walls meet at the four corners of the car at corner beams or posts as shown in Figure 5. In this figure the car side is again indicated at L? and connects as shown with a bent over end plate 58 secured thereto by rivets 59. The end plate, being of conventional construction, extends from the rivets 59 about an arc of short radius and then along a portion .69 at an angle to the end of the car until it flattens out in a straight portion 62 that forms the bottom or inner part of one of several corrugated channels extending horizontally crosswise of the car ends in a wellknown manner. In order to position the boards 30a and 35b parallel with the sides of the car and support them at the corners, posts in the form of angle members 65 are provided and serve also to reinforce the corner of the car.

The posts 65 are V-shaped with one leg somewhat longer than the other; this longer leg being welded at 61 to the side l3 of the car. At the apex of the V the post is welded at 68 to the portion 60 of the car end and thus provides a vertical reinforcement to add strength to the car at each corner. The shorter leg 70 of the V extends parallel to the carsides and receives and supports boards 36 by engagement within the recessed portions 36 or 48 thereof; in this case recess 36 because of the arrangement of the boards. The post 65 is so formed and positioned that the extreme ends 34 of the boards 30 extend beyond the inner surface of vertical tongued and grooved boards 12 that cover the end walls in the usual manner and they are secured against the bottoms 62 of the corrugated channels by reason of being nailed to horizontal Wooden strips 14 (Figure 1) secured inside of certain of the corrugations in the car end.

A modified form of side post construction is flieda ed n Figure 6 in which an H-beam 15 5 with a modified flange I6 is secured by that flange to the insidev surface of a car side l3; although it will be evident that a standard H- beam may be used for the purpose if it is so desired. The beam is welded at 18 to the side I3, as shown. The side post includes a web 80 and flanges 90. and 9| which are used like the flanged end 22 in Figure 2 to support the ends of boards 30a and 3017 respectively.

From the foregoing description it will be evident there is provided an improved form of wooden lining for box cars and the like, the individual boards of which may be made from scrap lumber of random width with tongued and grooved edges and ends milled as described above. Any one board may beused in any part of the completed lining so that only one length and style of board is required to meet all conditions; the structural members required to support the lining may be of standard or'easily formed sections, thus the linings can be constructed at low cost. The complete lining furnishes adequate V protection for the contents of the car and provides wooden surfaces for nailing, yet any Worn or damaged boardmay be replaced readily and economically.

I claim:

1. A car inner 'wall construction including a plurality of substantially parallel flangedpost members secured to a side of 'a'car with a post member in the corner where the side and end join, said corner post member comprising a structural angle secured at one edge to the car side wall and at its apex to the car end walland with its free flange lying parallel to the adjacent car side, ,a series of boards positioned between said side and cornerpost members and terminating at said corner post and held in place, by

engagement with the free flange thereof, the opposite ends of said boards being formed so that the left end of one board and the right end of another board may be fitted together over and held in place by the flanges of said side post members to provide a substantially continuous section of wooden box car lining. v

2. A car inner wall construction including a plurality of substantially parallel flanged post members secured to a side of a car with a post member in the corner where said side'and end join, said corner post member comprising a structural angle secured at one edge'to the car side wall and at its apex to the car end wall and with its free flange lying parallel to the adjacent car side, a series of boards positioned between said side and corner post members and terminating at said corner post, the oppositeends of said boards being'formed so that the left endof one board'and the right end of another board may be'fitted together over the flanges of said side 'post members to provide a 'shiplap joint com-' pletely concealing said side posts from thein-' terior of the car, the formed ends of those of said boardsterminating' at said corner post overlying said free flange and being held in place thereby.

, KENNETH A. BROWNE.

REFERENCES CITEI The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,784,502 Stone Dec. 9, 1930 1,788,292 Havemeyer et a1 Jan. 6, 1931 2,074,439 Tangerman Mar. 23, 1937 2,208,450 Dietrich July 16, 1940 12,222,335 Dietrich Nov. 19, 1940 2,362,252 Ellingwood Dec. '7, 1940 

